The Outhouse is creating
The Outhouse: A Comic Book News Website for the Fans

Providing readers with laughs and unfiltered opinions about the comic industry.

Give $
per month

19

patrons

$148.02

per month

Milestone Goals

Pay for server costs

$120 per month

Our monthly server costs cost $119/mo. We're looking to build support from our readership to pay for our monthly server costs so that we can start paying our writers for their hard work and creative articles.

1 Milestone Goals

reached

Relaunch the Outhouse's Official Podcast

$400 per month

At $400/month, we'll relaunch the Outhouse's podcast, starring Jude and whatever other staffers we can sucker into showing up. We'll aim to make it a bi-monthly podcast with segments, interviews and plenty of snark and satire.

Print Has DC Done Something Stupid Today T-Shirts

$500 per month

We've received numerous requests for "Has DC Done Something Stupid Today" t-shirts. At $500/month, we'll be able to print t-shirts to give to our Patreon backers/sell. All proceeds from the shirts will go back into the site, either to pay site costs or to pay our writing staff.

Send Jude to a major comic book convention

$600 per month

If we hit the $600/month goal, we'll send Jude to a major comic book convention (C2E2, SDCC of NYCC) with a video camera and see how many times he gets punched in the face by various comic book professionals by saying he works for the Outhouse. Any funds used to send Jude to a convention will be paid for out of pocket, and won't come out of funds raised by the Patreon campaign.

Send Jude to the DC Burbank Office

$2,000 per month

At the totally unfeasible goal level of $2,000, we'll send Jude to Burbank and attempt to set him up with a face to face meeting with either Dan Didio or Bob Harras, which will probably result in one or all of them being arrested. Jude specifically wanted to give fans a goal level that would result in his arrest, so please don't hate me Amy (Jude's wife, for those not in the know). Any money used to bail Jude out of jail and pay for his legal costs will come out of our own pocket and not from money raised by the Patreon campaign.

The Outhouse is a semi-satirical comic book website that aims to mock and lampoon everything wrong with the comic book industry and comic book journalism, sometimes by engaging in the very same practices. It's a fine line.

The Outhouse is a comic book website dedicated to being a fan-driven voice in the comics industry. Unlike other sites, we consider ourselves to be a voice for consumers, not giant entertainment corporations. Our writers are all fans of comics, and strive to provide news and commentary from a perspective that other fans can understand and relate to.

On average, the Outhouse publishes between 7 to 10 articles a day, and covers a variety of topics, including comics, television, movies, books and more. Our article mix includes news, reviews, interviews, satire, podcasts and op/eds. We also periodically feature webcomics on our site. The site has averaged over 18,000 pageviews per day this year, and has had over 1.2 million visitors in 2014.

In 2012, we changed the focus of our front page to make our articles to include more snark and satire, in an attempt to change the things we felt were dragging the industry down. We believe in taking a stance against racism and sexism in the comic industry, advocating and supporting creators, creator-owned comics, and the readers that make it possible, and to provide news and commentary about the comic and entertainment industry that doesn't take itself too seriously.

In 2014, the Outhouse recommitted itself to focusing on small press comics and is currently building a secondary site that will focus on local comics and creators in several key markets. We've also started to focus more on Kickstarter projects, recognizing that crowdfunded comics will continue to be a force in the comic industry. We're hoping to be a more comprehensive comic site that fans of mainstream, alternative and local comics can all enjoy.

Our site's costs are currently limited to a $119/mo. server fee, which we pay for out of pocket with the help of advertising funds. Our ability to advertise has been limited by Google Adsense banning the site in 2011 over a forum post. While we've managed to get by, our traffic has increased nearly 400% since that time, and we'd like to be in a position to actually pay our non-owner content creators for their time and hard work, and possibly expand our staff to provide even more coverage of the comic industry.

So, we're asking our readership for assistance. If we can raise the $120/mo. needed to pay our bills, we can start compensating staff writers and bringing in more quality articles to the site. With crowdfunding becoming an increasingly viable option in comics, we'd figure we'd try our hand at it. If 13 people donate $10 a month via Patreon, we'd pay for our site bills and the Patreon overhead costs (approximately 9%).

Please keep in mind that one of the great things about Patreon is that you can shift your support from month to month. We've set up some larger rewards, like t-shirts and sponsorships at whatnot, that people can choose one month, and then lower their monthly contributions the following month. We do not expect anyone to support the site by paying $40 per month in perpetuity.

We plan on being extremely up front with those who support this Patreon campaign with what their money is being used for. Anyone who provides monthly support to the Outhouse will receive a monthly summary of site traffic, site costs, and what we're using with the money (pay for servers, pay for writers, and possibly pay for t-shirts, which will pay for more writers).

Let's be clear: no matter what the outcome of this Patreon, the Outhouse will continue to be the Outhouse that you love (or love to hate). We don't want anyone to feel like we're squeezing them, or that The Outhouse will go behind any kind of paywall, or anything like that. If we receive $0/month, our 200,000+ monthly readers can still enjoy our hackneyed mockery and self-referential in-jokes for free. You should contribute only because you want to, and because you want to help us grow to be an even bigger thorn in the side to idiocy in the comics industry than we are now.

Thank you so much for your time and support. We hope to continue to be a voice in the comic industry for years to come.